THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. On Thursday, I visited the USS
Abraham Lincoln, now headed home after the longest carrier deployment
in recent history. I delivered good news to the men and women who
fought in the cause of freedom: their mission is complete and major
combat operations in Iraq have ended. Our coalition is now engaged in
securing and reconstructing that country. The United States and our
allies have prevailed.

Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of
precision, speed and boldness the enemy did not expect and the world
had not seen before. From distance bases or ships at sea, we sent
planes and missiles that could destroy an enemy division or strike a
single building or bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad
across 350 miles of hostile ground in one of the swiftest mass advances
of heavy arms in history. The world has seen the might of the American
armed forces.

In this victory, America received valuable help from our allies.
This weekend, I am hosting Australian Prime Minister John Howard at my
ranch in Crawford, Texas. Prime Minister Howard has been a strong ally
in the war on terror, and Australian forces have played an important
role in the liberation of Iraq. Australian Special Forces entered Iraq
with their American and British counterparts at the very beginning of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. They helped to secure sites in western Iraq
that could have been used to launch scud missiles. And they disrupted
Iraqi troop movements and command posts, paving the way for Army and
Marine units making their way to Baghdad.

Australia FA-18 fighters carried out deep bombing runs in Iraq.
The Australian Navy worked with British forces to take control of the
Faw Peninsula. Australian Navy divers cleared mines in the port of Umm
Qasr, opening sea lanes to deliver humanitarian assistance. And
Australian transport planes delivered emergency supplies and equipment
for Iraqi hospitals.

All told, about 2,000 Australian service members contributed to the
destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime and the liberation of the Iraqi
people. All Australians can be justly proud of the superb performance
of Australian's air, naval and Special Forces in Operation Iraqi
Freedom. America is deeply grateful for their important
contributions.

Our coalition still has much work to do in Iraq. We are bringing
order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing
and finding leaders of the old regime who will be held to account for
their crimes. We have begun the search for hidden chemical and
biological weapons at hundreds of locations. We are helping to rebuild
Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of
hospitals and schools for the people. And we will stand with the new
leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by and for the Iraqi
people. The transition from dictatorship to democracy is hard, and
will take time -- but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will
stay until our work is done, then we will leave -- and we will leave
behind a free Iraq.

The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that still
goes on. al Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of
the terrorist networks still operate in many nations. And we know from
daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The
proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger. The enemies
of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government has taken
unprecedented measures to defend our homeland and, more importantly, we will continue to hunt the enemy down before he can strike.

No act of terrorists will change our purpose or weaken our resolve
or alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free nations will press on
to victory.